The Department of Defense released 72 declassified documents Friday spanning from the 1940s to the present day, opening new windows into how U.S. intelligence agencies investigated reports of unidentified flying objects across the globe. The third major document dump under President Donald Trump's watch continues a pattern of releasing what officials call "unresolved cases" where the government could not definitively explain what people claimed to have seen in the sky.
The latest tranche includes materials from the FBI, CIA, Department of Defense, NASA, and other government agencies. Among them sits a report from a federal law enforcement agent this month describing an object that resembled "the flying car from the Harry Potter series." Another file documents a July 2008 sighting at Harare International Airport in Zimbabwe, where observers debated whether the object was an advanced foreign military device or something extraterrestrial in origin. The Zimbabwe incident included descriptions of "beams" emanating from the craft during observation.
But for UFO enthusiasts hoping for smoking gun evidence of alien visitors, the files offer little comfort. A document from 1998 flatly states that "the U.S. Government is not aware of evidence supporting the existence of extraterrestrial technology." The Pentagon's own characterization of the materials emphasizes that they represent cases where investigators simply could not reach firm conclusions about what was observed.
Some documents hint at deliberate obfuscation. A memo dated January 1958 from CIA officer R.P.B. Lohman to scientist Leon Davidson reveals frustration with information gaps. Lohman wrote that records on space messages and related matters "have been destroyed by the evaluating agency," and he appeared to regret having to relay this to Davidson, the nuclear physicist who later pursued his own UFO investigations. Lohman acknowledged that the evasive response had been necessary to avoid contradicting previous statements made by the CIA and other agencies.
The oldest materials in this release date to the 1940s. A Defense Department evaluation study from June 1946 examined approximately 210 incidents, finding that only 20 percent could be explained. The report explicitly ruled out attribution to any foreign nation, though it remained silent on other possibilities. Another 1949 file captures correspondence between FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Reverend Charles Barnes, who reported witnessing four beams of light converging at 10,000 feet in the Cascade Mountains, followed by what he described as a great explosion lasting ten minutes. Hoover's response suggested the sighting might stem from "a military or scientific experiment" under Atomic Energy Commission authority.
The 1950s saw government agencies grapple with how to manage public interest in UFOs. A CIA Scientific Advisory Panel convened in 1952 and 1953 concluded that flying saucers posed no direct physical threat to U.S. national security. The panel's real concern was the "sensationalist press" covering these events. To address this, the panel recommended an official "policy of debunking" designed to "strip the UFO subject of its mystery" and reduce public concern.
One file includes excerpts from a 1962 CBS News interview between Walter Cronkite and Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper. Cooper noted that many highly qualified observers had witnessed unexplained objects and speculated about the possibility of life on other planets with breathable atmospheres. The interview captures a moment when space exploration itself seemed to open imaginative possibilities about what lay beyond Earth.
Like the two previous releases, these documents are housed on a dedicated Pentagon public affairs website. Officials continue to describe the materials as cases where the government reached no definitive determination about observed phenomena. Whether this latest release will satisfy public curiosity or fuel more questions remains an open question.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "These files show that serious institutions spent serious time on UFO reports, but the lack of any dramatic revelations suggests the real story isn't about what's hidden in the Pentagon, it's about why Americans remain so hungry to believe the government has answers it refuses to share."
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